by Tom Gurney
Tom Gurney BSc (Hons) is an art history expert with over 20 years experience
Published on June 19, 2020 / Updated on September 29, 2026
Email: tomgurney1@gmail.com / Phone: +44 7429 011000
About the painting
A low coastal dune climbs toward the right, where its pale ridge meets a dark blue-violet sky. Small strokes of yellow, cream, orange and blue make the sand shimmer. Piet Mondrian's Pointillist Dune Study, Crest at Right dates from 1909 and is RKD A704. Kunstmuseum Den Haag owns it as 0334292 under the title Duin II, recording oil on canvas, 37.5 × 46.5 cm. Its rightward crest identifies a distinct work from the museum's smaller cardboard Duin III at centre and the A703 left-crest work.[1][2]
At a glance
- ArtistPiet Mondrian (Piet Mondriaan, 1872–1944)
- Catalogue titlePointillist Dune Study, Crest at Right
- Museum titleDuin II (“Dune II”)
- Date1909
- Catalogue numberRKD A704
- MediumOil on canvas
- Dimensions37.5 × 46.5 cm (height × width)
- CollectionKunstmuseum Den Haag, The Hague
- Object number0334292; from the Salomon B. Slijper bequest[1][2]
Three pointillist dune studies of 1909
Contents
- What does the dune painting show?
- How does pointillist colour work here?
- Why did Mondrian study the Zeeland dunes?
- What separates the three crest studies?
- Where is the original now?
What does the dune painting show?
The picture gives most of its area to a pale, rising dune. At the upper right, its contour lifts to the crest before falling toward the left. A compact blue-violet sky remains above. The lower slope is not a continuous smooth surface: small painted touches, often blue, yellow, orange or almost white, build the impression of light on sand. A warmer, curling form near the upper right adds visual movement to the crest. The image invites the eye to travel along the slope, then return to inspect the individual marks.
 The Red Tree Piet Mondrian.jpg)
The horizon-like boundary between dune and sky lies high in the composition. This crowds the land toward the viewer and keeps attention on its surface. Little here provides ordinary scale: no walker, house or line of trees. Mondrian makes a piece of coastal ground enough to sustain the entire painting. The sky functions as a strong colour contrast rather than a large scene in its own right.
The title's directional phrase is a catalogue description. “Crest at right” helps distinguish A704 from two related 1909 studies. The museum's Dutch title Duin II gives another way of finding the work. The accession 0334292 ties the two names together and prevents a reader from attaching the right-crest image to the centre-crest Duin III.[1][2]
How does pointillist colour work here?
Many separate touches are visible across the canvas. The dune can read as pale sand from a distance, but up close it is made of colours that are not simply the local beige of dry sand. Cool blue and violet marks sit amid warm yellow and orange, producing a lively sense of light and shadow. The strokes are not identical printed dots; they change shape and density. That irregularity is part of the painting's energy.
The dark sky is likewise assembled rather than filled in uniformly. Its blue and purple passages contain smaller shifts of tone. Against it, the dune's pale edge becomes sharper, particularly near the right-hand crest. A viewer can switch between two experiences: recognising a coastal mound and observing a surface of distinct colour marks. That interplay is what makes the “pointillist study” label useful without forcing the painting into a rigid technique formula.
The museum identifies the support as canvas. This matters because its nearby A702 / Duin III is oil on cardboard, and the left-crest A703 is described by Christie’s as oil and graphite on paper laid onto composition board. Similar appearance cannot replace object records when explaining how each work was made.[2][3][4]
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Watch on YouTubeWhy did Mondrian study the Zeeland dunes?
RKD places A704 in Mondrian's Zeeland 1909–11 chapter, among pictures of sea, beach, piers and dunes. Several entries from 1909 sit closely together: views of the sea, a Domburg beach with piers, brightly striped dune sketches, and the three pointillist crest studies A702–A704. The catalogue sequence shows repeated attention to the coast; it should not be turned into a precise diary of the order in which every picture was painted.[1]
The Artizon Museum's interpretation of a 1909 Mondrian Dune says he explored the relationship between land and sky by varying shape, brushstroke density and colour. A704 offers a visible example of the same broader coastal problem: the dune's shape is easy to understand, but its colour marks give it a more complex sensation of changing light. The Artizon record is contextual and does not supply A704's museum number or medium; those facts come from Kunstmuseum Den Haag.[5][2]
The painting belongs to a stage before Mondrian's later fully abstract work. It is fair to say that he was testing colour and simplification. It is less defensible to treat each tiny stroke as a direct draft of a future grid line. The curved, recognisable dune remains essential to this 1909 image.
What separates the three crest studies?
The centre-crest A702 is Kunstmuseum Den Haag 0334293, titled Duin III, an oil on cardboard work measuring 29.5 × 39 cm. Its pale dune swells toward the middle beneath a rich blue sky. The names Duin II and Duin III may look like a simple numbered sequence, but their RKD identifiers and museum records are what establish the exact image-object matches.[1][3]
The left-crest A703 places the dune's highest point to the other side. Christie's 1998 lot cites the catalogue number and records oil with traces of graphite on paper mounted on composition board, 30 × 39.4 cm. RKD lists it at a Tokyo institution historically called the Bridgestone Museum of Art. Its different support and provenance reinforce that it is not another crop of this Hague canvas.[1][4]
In A704, the upward pull is to the right. Because the rest of the motif remains so simple, that shift affects how a viewer enters the picture. Starting at the lower left, the eye moves uphill; starting at the crest, it can follow the small marks down the slope. Mondrian's three compositions show the same natural type reorganised around different focal points.
Where is the original now?
The original is in Kunstmuseum Den Haag. The museum's collection record gives object number 0334292, the 1909 date, oil on canvas and 37.5 × 46.5 cm, credited to the Salomon B. Slijper bequest. Its online listing confirms collection ownership but does not promise permanent display of the painting. Visitors who want to see this precise object should consult current museum information before travelling.[2]
The local page's existing image is retained. It shows the right-rising crest and the purple-blue sky, and its visual structure matches the RKD A704 identification. A small reproduction is enough for the object's main compositional features, although the original canvas's texture and individual paint touches would be better appreciated in person. No additional image licence is needed to make the page complete.
Mondrian artworks directory
Frequently asked questions
Is Duin II the same as the right-crest study?
What is the medium and size?
Kunstmuseum Den Haag lists oil on canvas, 37.5 × 46.5 cm.[2]
Is it the same as Duin III?
Discussion
How does the dune rise toward the right?
Reader Insights
Which colours break up the pale sand?
How does the canvas support differ from A702 cardboard and A703 paper?
How does the canvas support differ from A702 cardboard and A703 paper?
Join the Conversation
Share what you notice in this painting below.
References
- RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History, Mondrian catalogue of Zeeland seascapes, A702–A704, distinguishing centre, left and right crest. View source.
- Kunstmuseum Den Haag, official object record for Duin II, 0334292, 1909, oil on canvas, 37.5 × 46.5 cm, Slijper bequest. View source.
- Kunstmuseum Den Haag, official object record for separate centre-crest Duin III, 0334293 / A702. View source.
- Christie’s, original 1998 lot record for separate left-crest A703, with exact material, dimensions and provenance. View source.
- Artizon Museum, interpretation of Mondrian's 1909 Domburg dunes and colour/brushstroke experiments; used for context, not A704 object facts. View source.
- Lead image credit. Piet Mondrian, Pointillist Dune Study, Crest at Right (Duin II), 1909, oil on canvas, 37.5 × 46.5 cm, Kunstmuseum Den Haag, 0334292, RKD A704.
